Books by John W. O'Malley

This unprecedented comparison of the three most recent Catholic councils traverses more than 450 years and examines the church's most pressing and consistent concerns-issues of purpose, power, and relevance. John O'Malley addresses key questions councils raised. Who was in charge of the church? And what difference did the councils make?

In the nineteenth century, the foundations upon which the Catholic Church had rested for centuries were shaken were shaken by liberalism. At the Vatican Council of 1869 1870, the church made a dramatic effort to set things right by defining the doctrine of papal infallibility. As a result, the church became more pope-centered than ever before.

Trent, the Catholic Church's attempt to put its house in order after the Reformation, has long been praised and blamed for things it never did. This one-volume history, the first in modern times, explores the volatile issues that pushed several Holy Roman emperors, kings and queens of France, five popes, and all of Europe to the brink of disaster.

John W. O'Malley gives us the most comprehensive account ever written of the Society of Jesus in its founding years, one that heightens and transforms our understanding of the Jesuits in history and today.

Where are we going? What in the world were we thinking? By exploring the history of four "cultures" so deeply embedded in Western history that we rarely see their instrumental role in politics, religion, education, and the arts, this timely book provides a broad framework for addressing these questions in a fresh way.

During four years in session, Vatican Council II held television audiences rapt with its elegant, magnificently choreographed public ceremonies, while its debates generated front-page news on a near-weekly basis. This book captures the drama of the council, depicting the colorful characters involved and their clashes with one another.

John W. O'Malley works out a remarkable guide to the intellectual and historical developments behind the concepts of Catholic reform, the Counter Reformation, and, in his felicitous term, Early Modern Catholicism. The result is the single best overview of scholarship on Catholicism in early modern Europe, delivered in a pithy, entertaining style.